Cali-style Christmas Break

Bocce ball at the park?  Hike in the redwoods?  Sunburn from playing tennis?  Day at the beach?  Forget gathering receipts and taking down Christmas trees.  These are my kind of post-Christmas, year-end activities.



Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, a short drive from our casa.
(Why don't we come here more often?)





Kymber and Stephen hitting the trail

 







The boys, Kymber, and I scampered on the big rocks and collected some small ones.

 



Millie swinging it up while the adults played bocce.

 



Rainbow cupcake, anyone?

 



Watching the surfers at Capitola Beach.

 



Joseph and his boy.  This was the twins' first time in the sand.  R loved it.  G hated it.

 



Mille and R in the sand pit.

 



 


Oops!  A little out of order here.

 


Eli pushing the twins at the park

 

All sorts of sweets

The kids are blessed to have some wonderful grandmothers in their life. Grandma Geddes, Grandma Paula, Grammy Miller, and Kathleen--Lizzy's mom--the last two being honorary grandmas, all make our three munchkins feel very loved. A few days before Christmas, Stephen took Millie and the boys over to Grammy Miller's house for some fun sugar cookie-making. They came home very proud of their creations. Christmas Eve found them lucky enough to frost Kathleen's super yummy sugar cookies, the same ones she mails us for Halloween and Easter from Virginia, since she was in town visiting Liz. They couldn't wait to put some on Santa's cookie plate that night.

Photo-less Christmas Eve:
We enjoyed a delicioso Mexican smorgasbord, including tamales, enchiladas, crock pot black beans, Spanish rice, "rockamole" as Eli calls it with our new addiction--Roasted Garlic and Black Bean Tostito chips-- and assorted veggies.  Stephen's great uncle, Earl, and his daughter Lisa joined us for festivities, and I loved hearing Uncle Earl's fighter pilot stories from World War II.  1) We ate  2) we did Nativity finger puppets  3) we opened some PJ's and slippers  4) we put the kids to bed  5) we played games, and 6) Stephen and I stayed up 'til one in the morning wrapping presents.  Steps 1 and 5 to be repeated many succeeding evenings.

Christmas Day:




Unplanned but perfectly matching 'jamas (thanks, G'ma & G'pa) and slippers (from us)

 



My cop-out Christmas morning breakfast.  Let's face it, it's all about the presents.

 



How does Santa know I love "rockstick" (translation = chapstick)?

 



Love my easy-to-please man.  Seriously, who gets this excited over white trash stocking food?

 



The boys down to business with their new planes and pilot action figures

 



Mills took occasional exits from the gift-opening hooplah to go read a book by the fireplace

 
Not pictured: our mad dash to get ready for church and my extremely last-minute scrambling to write a talk for church.  Will there ever come a day when I don't procrastinate?

Christmas night: dinner, gifts, more games.

As I mentioned above, we had a lot of Geddes family game nights over the break, so I'd like you to note the progress Uncle Stephen made with his very discerning, albeit adorable, niece.  She has had an aversion to him and his beard for some time now.  We're talking a few months.  He can't resist trying, however.  He'll do anything to make this girl like him.




Christmas night





Last night

 He finally did it!  He won her over.

Darth Vader meets Disney gingerbread houses

December means busy.  For everyone.  Scheduling a family birthday party for Eli and a family gingerbread house night in the middle of an already crazy month = mission impossible. So why not combine the two? 

Eli's B-day Dinner Requests:

ice cream cake (yes, I tried to explain that it's winter...)

pigs-in-a-blanket

Daddy's grilled cheese

root beer

cucumbers

Gift Requests:

Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars



Darth Vader action figure--yes!





Star Wars puzzle, held by the boy whose mom forgets to sew new buttons on hand-me-down shirts

 

Gingerbread Houses

Disney movies theme,

selected by Mr. Eli, birthday man of the hour




Bennett having fun with the frosting bag

 


Millie loved all the candy options for decorating, although I'm not sure much made it on the house





Jospeh and Kendra's "Santa Claus, The Movie" entry on the left; our "Up" house on the right

 



Kymber and Kristi's Radiator Springs from "Cars"

 


Grandpa and Grandma's "Three Little Pigs"



The kids' own creations



Not under the tree

I received the best Christmas present this year.

 

Three weeks early. 

Completely free of cost. 

No wrapping required.

And definitely a surprise.  I did not see this one coming.

Let's see if I can give you a few hints to help you figure it out.  It means Stephen can sleep in an extra hour or two on Sunday morning.  It means I don't have to fold laundry and watch a chick flick alone on Tuesday night.  It means the kids get to sit with their dad at church.  They even get to see him after church when we get home.  Have you guessed this most wonderful of Christmas presents?  Yes, indeed, my husband was released from the bishopric.  Wahoo!!

I'm not sure Stephen was quite as elated as I was by this news, and his first Sunday sitting with our monkeys down in the peanut gallery certainly didn't help matters, but I think a little more time to sleep and relax and play basketball is starting to grow on him.  It took us, and the whole ward, by surprise since this bishopric had only served a year-and-a-half, but the bishop had been having health problems, making it a necessary change. 

Stephen, and consequently our family, grew with his service to this calling.  I still remember being completely humbled by how long he would stay on his knees at night to pray only a few weeks after being called, already so aware, concerned, and eager to help the members of our ward.  He frequently orchestrated service-oriented FHE's for our family, where we shifted the focus of our family from ourselves to someone who needed us.  Listening to him share his testimony with our kids, often in small or unexpected moments, brought the Spirit into our home with new frequency and strength.  We were lifted as a family.  So, as much as I love my best Christmas present ever, I will miss that little lift, as I know Stephen will.

Rejects

We are dumb. This won't surprise many of you, but for some reason it continues to surprise us. We're dumb for procrastinating. We're dumb for scheduling Christmas card photos on a day when we'd been at the temple all day. We're dumb for expecting Millie to be happy and photogenic after just waking up from the world's shortest nap (in the van, of course). We're dumb for forgetting just how hard it is to get five people, three of whom are munchkins, to look at the camera at the same time. We're dumb for thinking we'd luck out the way we did last year, when we had a few backyard shots taken after church one Sunday. It took all of ten minutes, cost us nothing (thanks, Liz!) and we got an awesome photo out of it. Well, you can't always luck out, especially when you're dummies like we are.

Enjoy a sampling of our Christmas card rejects below. Stephen and Bennett are rockstars in just about every shot, while Millie and Eli seem to have inherited my not-so-photogenic genes. Sorry, you two. You should see just how many of my school pictures have me looking half-baked. Some were even retakes. Pretty sad.



Three of five looking

 


This was the very first shot.  Can you see how thrilled Millie is?

 



You might not be able to tell, but this is the 'turn-the-head-'cause-I'm-so-angry-and-crying' shot





Sour-puss Millie and dumbfounded Eli

 



We finally get a shot with all three kids looking!  And then I have to go and ruin it.



Great minds

We have always been early risers around here, but I'm pretty sure today takes the cake for early morning birthday festivities. Birthday boy, Eli, and his equally-excited partner in crime were up at 5:45 this morning, chatting away in their bunk bed in eager anticipation of "What could be inside those packages from the grandparents?" Grandma Paula and Grandad Jory & Connie beat the Christmas rush and actually had Eli's presents arrive early (a skill I clearly missed out on in the gene pool), which once again saved me, since I never seem to have birthday presents wrapped in time. Not only were the long-distance grandparents super prepared, but they also thought alike, which with two best bud brothers turned out to be the perfect thing. No fighting over the new toys!





Can you see why he was so thrilled about these packages?  Gigantic!

  



"Just what I wanted!"

 



"Awesome!!"

  


And here's the beauty of getting two guitars





The jam session goes on (p.s. they're still jamming, an hour later)

 



Decadent b-day b-fast